1,116 research outputs found
Create a translational medicine knowledge repository - Research downsizing, mergers and increased outsourcing have reduced the depth of in-house translational medicine expertise and institutional memory at many pharmaceutical and biotech companies: how will they avoid relearning old lessons?
Pharmaceutical industry consolidation and overall research downsizing threatens the ability of companies to benefit from their previous investments in translational research as key leaders with the most knowledge of the successful use of biomarkers and translational pharmacology models are laid off or accept their severance packages. Two recently published books may help to preserve this type of knowledge but much of this type of information is not in the public domain. Here we propose the creation of a translational medicine knowledge repository where companies can submit their translational research data and access similar data from other companies in a precompetitive environment. This searchable repository would become an invaluable resource for translational scientists and drug developers that could speed and reduce the cost of new drug development
False-Name Manipulation in Weighted Voting Games is Hard for Probabilistic Polynomial Time
False-name manipulation refers to the question of whether a player in a
weighted voting game can increase her power by splitting into several players
and distributing her weight among these false identities. Analogously to this
splitting problem, the beneficial merging problem asks whether a coalition of
players can increase their power in a weighted voting game by merging their
weights. Aziz et al. [ABEP11] analyze the problem of whether merging or
splitting players in weighted voting games is beneficial in terms of the
Shapley-Shubik and the normalized Banzhaf index, and so do Rey and Rothe [RR10]
for the probabilistic Banzhaf index. All these results provide merely
NP-hardness lower bounds for these problems, leaving the question about their
exact complexity open. For the Shapley--Shubik and the probabilistic Banzhaf
index, we raise these lower bounds to hardness for PP, "probabilistic
polynomial time", and provide matching upper bounds for beneficial merging and,
whenever the number of false identities is fixed, also for beneficial
splitting, thus resolving previous conjectures in the affirmative. It follows
from our results that beneficial merging and splitting for these two power
indices cannot be solved in NP, unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses,
which is considered highly unlikely
Targeting B-Raf inhibitor resistant melanoma with novel cell penetrating peptide disrupters of PDE8A â C-Raf
Background:
Recent advances in the treatment of melanoma that involve immunotherapy and B-Raf inhibition have revolutionised cancer care for this disease. However, an un-met clinical need remains in B-Raf inhibitor resistant patients where first-generation B-Raf inhibitors provide only short-term disease control. In these cases, B-Raf inhibition leads to paradoxical activation of the C-Raf â MEK â ERK signalling pathway, followed by metastasis. PDE8A has been shown to directly interact with and modulate the cAMP microdomain in the vicinity of C-Raf. This interaction promotes C-Raf activation by attenuating the PKA-mediated inhibitory phosphorylation of the kinase.
Methods:
We have used a novel cell-penetrating peptide agent (PPL-008) that inhibits the PDE8A â C-Raf complex in a human malignant MM415 melanoma cell line and MM415 melanoma xenograft mouse model to investigate ERK MAP kinase signalling.
Results:
We have demonstrated that the PDE8A â C-Raf complex disruptor PPL-008 increased inhibitory C-Raf-S259 phosphorylation and significantly reduced phospho-ERK signalling. We have also discovered that the ability of PPL-008 to dampen ERK signalling can be used to counter B-Raf inhibitor-driven paradoxical activation of phospho-ERK in MM415 cells treated with PLX4032 (Vemurafenib). PPL-008 treatment also significantly retarded the growth of these cells. When applied to a MM415 melanoma xenograft mouse model, PPL-008C penetrated tumour tissue and significantly reduced phospho-ERK signalling in that domain.
Conclusion:
Our data suggests that the PDE8A-C-Raf complex is a promising therapeutic treatment for B-Raf inhibitor resistant melanoma
Factorized Q-Learning for Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems
Deep Q-learning has achieved significant success in single-agent decision
making tasks. However, it is challenging to extend Q-learning to large-scale
multi-agent scenarios, due to the explosion of action space resulting from the
complex dynamics between the environment and the agents. In this paper, we
propose to make the computation of multi-agent Q-learning tractable by treating
the Q-function (w.r.t. state and joint-action) as a high-order high-dimensional
tensor and then approximate it with factorized pairwise interactions.
Furthermore, we utilize a composite deep neural network architecture for
computing the factorized Q-function, share the model parameters among all the
agents within the same group, and estimate the agents' optimal joint actions
through a coordinate descent type algorithm. All these simplifications greatly
reduce the model complexity and accelerate the learning process. Extensive
experiments on two different multi-agent problems demonstrate the performance
gain of our proposed approach in comparison with strong baselines, particularly
when there are a large number of agents.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, DAI 201
Fundamental Solutions for the Klein-Gordon Equation in de Sitter Spacetime
In this article we construct the fundamental solutions for the Klein-Gordon
equation in de Sitter spacetime. We use these fundamental solutions to
represent solutions of the Cauchy problem and to prove estimates for
the solutions of the equation with and without a source term
An exploration of ebook selection behavior in academic library collections
Academic libraries have offered ebooks for some time, however little is known about how readers interact with them while making relevance decisions. In this paper we seek to address that gap by analyzing ebook transaction logs for books in a university library
AAAS joins the Translational Medicine family
The AAAS has announced the launch of Science Translational Medicine. This is further and critical recognition of this discipline and we are deeply gratified that translational medicine has risen to the level of recognition by one of the world's most prestigious scientific organizations. We believe that Science Translational Medicine will provide another valuable venue for the rapid and broad dissemination of important articles in the field and contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of translational medicine overall
Chemokine Requirements for B Cell Entry to Lymph Nodes and Peyer's Patches
B cell entry to lymph nodes and Peyer's patches depends on chemokine receptor signaling, but the principal chemokine involved has not been defined. Here we show that the homing of CXCR4â/â B cells is suppressed in CCL19 (ELC)- and CCL21 (SLC)-deficient paucity of lymph node T cells mice, but not in wild-type mice. We also find that CXCR4 can contribute to T cell homing. Using intravital microscopy, we find that B cell adhesion to high endothelial venules (HEVs) is disrupted when CCR7 and CXCR4 are predesensitized. In Peyer's patches, B cell entry is dependent on CXCR5 in addition to CCR7/CXCR4. CXCL12 (SDF1) is displayed broadly on HEVs, whereas CXCL13 (BLC) is found selectively on Peyer's patch follicular HEVs. These findings establish the principal chemokine and chemokine receptor requirements for B cell entry to lymph nodes and Peyer's patches
A log analysis study of 10 years of ebook consumption in academic library collections
Even though libraries have been offering eBooks for more than a decade, very little is known about eBook access and consumption in academic library collections. This paper addresses this gap with a log analysis study of eBook access at the library of the University of Waikato. This in-depth analysis covers a period spanning 10 years of eBook use at this university. We draw conclusions about the use of eBooks at this institution and compare the results with other published studies of eBook usage at tertiary institutes
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Eau de Cleopatra: Mendesian perfume and Tell Timai
A combination of Classics, Egyptology, and experimental archaeology were utilized to recreate the (in)famous perfume used by Queen Cleopatra VII. Especially important was the use of classical sources and paleobotany to determine the identity of the Egyptian sacred oils such as camphor and balanos. Excavations at the site of Tell Timai revealed a perfumery that contributed to our ability to recreate the process of perfume manufacture. This ancient âMendesianâ perfume has since been recreated in the lab, exhibited at the Smithsonian, and worn again for the first time in millennia
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